While some people eat anything, including junk food, and barely gain any weight, others barely eat but still hold a lot of weight. Both of these happen due to one’s metabolism. A slow or fast-metabolism plays a big role in weight gain and weight loss, and learning the type of metabolism you have can help you use it to control your weight accordingly.
You can always balance your metabolism by paying attention to diet and lifestyle factors. Some factors, such as cigarette smoking, can increase your metabolism even though it’s terrible for your health. Of course, smoking cigarettes can cause more problems than burning calories.
When paying attention to your diet, you should also consider your food allergies and intolerances. Finding out which foods to avoid by taking an Allergy and Intolerance Test can help you avoid various symptoms that can arise when you eat foods that aren’t good for your body.
What is metabolism?
Metabolism is also known as metabolic rate. It’s a series of chemical reactions in the body that create and break down energy necessary for life. The metabolism occurs when your body converts the foods and drinks consumed into energy. The metabolism process is complex, combining calories and oxygen to release energy. The energy released during the process of metabolism fuels your body’s functions.
Metabolism is partly genetic and primarily out of one’s control. Changing your metabolism is a matter of debate in the scientific community. While people with a fast-metabolism can eat anything and not change their weight, others who aren’t very lucky have a slow metabolism, which prevents them from feeding in the same manner.
Functions of metabolism
Metabolism has many roles in the body. Even when your body is resting, metabolism doesn’t stop. Metabolism is always at work to provide your body with energy for essential functions like:
- Breathing
- Growth and repair of cells
- Digesting food
- Managing hormone levels
- Regulating body temperature
- Circulating blood
While human fuels’ source is energy, that means when you consume something, the energy can be used right away or stored as fat for future use. On average, how fast your metabolism is determines the number of calories you burn. You’ll burn more calories while resting and during activity if you have a high metabolism.
However, an individual with a slow metabolism will burn less calories at rest and when active. Therefore, they have to eat less to prevent weight gain.
What is basal metabolic rate?
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the least calories your body uses to function while at rest. BMR varies from one individual to the other. Typically, your BMR constitutes 60% to 70% of the energy your body uses.
So, having a fast or slow metabolism depends on a person’s BMR. When you experience rapid weight loss or undergo calorie restriction, it decreases your BMR. Hence, this is the reason behind weight loss stalling at some point.
How metabolism Affects your weight
Most people blame their weight on the rate at which their bodies burn calories. Even though your metabolism rate determines your weight, a slow metabolism often isn’t the cause of weight gain. While metabolism decides how much energy is required to run various processes in the body, an individual’s weight depends on how much food or drinks they ingest.
While most people blame their metabolism for their weight, only two conditions can affect your weight, which are cushing syndrome and hypothyroidism, which are infrequent conditions. However, many factors affect weight, including genes, diet, lifestyle, and hormones.
Lifestyle factors affecting your weight include sleep, stress, and physical activity. The reason why you gain weight is because you eat more calories than you burn and vice versa. While some people may lose more weight easily and quickly compared to others, it all depends on how many calories you burn in relation to how many calories you consume.
Eating fewer calories or indulging in physical activity to burn calories can assist you to lose weight quickly. When you combine these two factors, then your weight loss journey becomes even easier.
Fast-metabolism meaning and why you have it
Your metabolism type is affected by various factors, including age, body size, gender, and genes. Most people with boosted metabolism acquire it from their parents. Even though that’s an excellent factor, your metabolism is also affected by your muscle mass, age, and physical activity. These factors are integral to the type of metabolism you have.
Usually, muscle cells require more energy to sustain them than fat cells. Because of this, people with more muscles tend to burn energy faster and have a fast-metabolism. Your doctor can help you understand why you have a fast-metabolism, whether due to lifestyle factors or if you were born with it. They can also determine whether it’s a result of an underlying condition like hyperthyroidism.
Hyperthyrthoisom is uncommon. However, it can cause you to have a fast-metabolism by causing the thyroid gland to produce more hormones than the body requires.
What are the symptoms of high metabolism?
Here are some signs of a fast-metabolism. These include:
- Anemia
- A faster heart rate
- Frequent sweating
- Difficulty maintaining a desired weight
- Difficulty gaming weight
- High body temperatures, even when inactive
- Frequent bowel and bladder movement
- Increased appetite
- Insomnia
- Irregular menstrual cycle
- Frequent bowel and bladder movement
- Increased breathing
- A lower percentage of body fat
People with a faster metabolism often fall in the body’s type category, ectomorphs. They’re naturally slim and lean and have a hard time gaining weight.
What causes your metabolism to be high?
Various factors can affect your metabolism or metabolic rate. These include:
- Age: As you age, you lose muscle mass, slowing your metabolism.
- Genes: The genes you get from your parents often affect your muscle size and ability to build muscle mass.
- Muscle mass: Your body uses more energy to build and maintain muscles than with fats. Hence, people with more muscle mass have higher metabolic rates since they burn more calories.
- Sex: People born as males usually have a faster metabolism than those born as females. Males have more muscle mass, less body fat, and larger bones.
- Smoking: Nicotine speeds up your metabolism, which leads you to burn more calories. Additionally, that’s why it’s common for people who have quit smoking to put on more weight. Even though this is a great way to boost your metabolism, the consequences of smoking are much higher than the benefits you might get by burning a few calories.
- Physical activity: Any form of physical activity, be it walking your dog, swimming, or even playing tennis, causes your body to burn more fat than being sedentary.
Is it good to have a high metabolism?
Having a higher metabolism means your body burns more calories at rest in comparison to someone with a slow metabolism. However, the faster your metabolism is, the more calories you must consume.
Having a fast-metabolism is good for you in terms of your health. However, you must ensure you consume enough calories to sustain your body. This means you must also consider the amount of calories you consume to prevent consuming too many calories, which can result in an energy imbalance in your body, hence weight gain.
The myth is that a fast-metabolism automatically means a smaller body size. However, it’s important to note that according to studies, people who are overweight or obese often have a fast-metabolism. Their bodies often require more energy to keep essential functions running.
Also, people with a higher body weight burn many calories when they move around because of how much energy the body requires to do basic activities. Unfortunately, most of these people live sedentary lives, which prevents them from losing weight.
How can I slow down my metabolism?
While it’s pretty hard to do this because your metabolism rate can be genetic, there are lifestyle factors that you can change if you want a slower metabolic rate. Sometimes, a fast-metabolism rate could be better as it prevents weight gain. To slow down and boost your metabolism, you can:
- Stop consuming caffeinated drinks.
- Get some help from a nutritionist and follow their guidelines.
- Get sufficient rest and sleep.
- Perform low-intensity physical activities for a short time.
- Eat at regular intervals and stop snacking in between. This can boost your appetite, causing you to consume a bit more food.
- Avoid performing high-intensity interval workouts that boost your metabolism.
Consider your diet, sleep, and stress levels if you want an average metabolic rate. When you balance these factors, then you won’t have to worry about your metabolism. It’s not wrong to have a fast-metabolic rate. Your GP can check for underlying conditions that may be affecting your metabolism. However, diet and lifestyle changes can improve your metabolism rate.
Final thoughts
Metabolism decides how fast your body burns calories to release energy. While some people have a high metabolism, others have a slow metabolism. Factors, including diet, lifestyle, and genetics, determine your metabolism rate. You can control these factors to balance your body’s metabolism. When being kept on your diet, check for allergies and intolerance using an Allergy and Intolerance Test. This test helps you know foods to add to your diet and which ones to remove as they’re causing your symptoms.
